1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of safes. More particularly, the invention pertains to a depository cabinet, for use as a lockable deposit chamber where numerous deposits may be irretrievably made for either dropping down into a main safe located therebelow in the same room as the cabinet or dropping down into a receptacle or a main safe located in another room. When used with a main safe located in the same room as the cabinet, the combination of upper depository cabinet and lower main safe can be made in such a low profile that it can be easily positioned under a desk or other such piece of furniture to provide the requisite safe features without occupying otherwise valuable floor space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many businesses are “area specific” meaning that their profitablility depends upon maximizing business areas and minimizing administrative areas. For instance, in a fast food franchise, every square foot of usable work space represents a part of a potential table or eating area or storage for supplies, and thus profit, while every square foot of administrative (office) space represents lost work space and a loss of potential profit. Thus, customer work and server space are maximized while administrative space is minimized.
In addition, there are instances where adjacent rooms are established for the purpose of having money counted and handled in one room but irretrievably passed from the “counting” or “handling” room, through the wall dividing the rooms, to the other, adjacent room where the money may be stored, packaged, paid out to third parties, and the like. One such set of adjacent rooms would be located in a gambling casino where depository boxes from gambling tables would be brought, opened, and the money removed and counted. The money would then be irretrievably deposited in a wall-mounted, depository cabinet to pass into a receptacle or safe located in the adjacent room, on the opposite side of the wall, where the money would be bundled and packaged for redistribution to other person through access windows.
In addition, many businesses are run in shifts using managers to supervise workers and to handle sales proceeds (or gambling proceeds) from their respective shifts. At the end of each shift, a manager must deposit the proceeds in a safe to be held securely therein for a period of time pending removal by the business owner after a day or a plurality of shifts. This situation requires separate deposits to be made in the upper deposit cabinet to drop down into a lower safe pending later removal of the accumulated deposits therefrom.
It is not unheard of that unscrupulous employees will attempt to extract monies deposited in the upper deposit cabinet or the lower safe before pickup by the owner. This criminal activity usually involves sliding a wire or a fish hook on a string into the depository cabinet for passage by gravity down into the safe where the deposits have accumulated, and attempting to “fish” out the paper money, or the deposit bags themselves. Once removed, the guilty employee blames the previous manager for not making the deposit or not placing the reported sum in the envelope when the initial deposit was made.
The prior art has developed, and currently markets, depository safes that accept paper or coins or one or more envelopes of “deposits” which drop by gravity down into a lower safe; however, these devices are merely safes with a non-lockable, upper entryway that does not allow for moving the deposit anywhere but downward into a lower safe. Generally, the prior art depository safe comprises a lower main safe body having a first hollow safe interior accessible through a first lockable door that is only openable by the business owner. An upper depository cabinet is mounted in fixed position on top of the lower main safe body to allow access to the lower main safe body through an unlocked top-mounted or front-mounted door that is accessible to the managers (or anyone else) of the business.
The prior art uses four types of depository techniques in the upper deposit cabinet. The first is a V-shaped hopper having a front mounted handle, pivotable at the apex of the hopper so that when the handle is pulled outward from the top of the cabinet, the hopper pivots forward to expose the interior of the hopper and to accept the deposit therein. When the handle is released or pushed backward, the hopper rotates inward of the cabinet and allows the deposit to fall off the rear hopper wall down through the interior passageway between the cabinet and the lower safe into the bottom hollow safe interior. The second type of deposit cabinet is a pull-out drop drawer having a downwardly pivotable drawer floor, usually hinged from the front, but sometimes the rear, of the drawer just inside the drawer handle. When the drawer is pulled out from the deposit cabinet, the drawer interior is exposed to make the deposit therein. When the drawer is pushed closed, the drawer floor pivots downward, inside the deposit cabinet, allowing the deposit to slide off the drawer floor, downward into the hollow safe interior in the lower safe body. The third type has a rotary hopper in the deposit cabinet. An exposed handle is used to rotate the hopper such that it opens through a hole in the top of the cabinet. After the deposit is made in the hopper, the handle is twisted to rotate the hopper and move the open hole in the hopper to align with a bottom hole in the deposit cabinet, allowing the deposit to drop out of the hopper and down into the safe interior. The fourth type is merely a horizontal slot formed in the top of the cabinet. This type of safe accepts only thin envelopes of deposits, is very easily pilfered and, for these reasons, is not readily accepted in the industry.
Each of these prior art depository cabinets share common problems which, currently, have not been answered and which continue to plague the industry. The first problem is that each cabinet is not lockable and requires the deposit to be made inward through the top or top-front of the deposit cabinet. This causes two problems: First, the entire combination of cabinet and safe is easy to pilfer. secondly, the combination is too high and must occupy its own space in the small, cramped manager's office. The floor space required by these prior art devices removes floor space that could otherwise be used to either expand the customer service area or the office space for other uses. The second problem is that each cabinet can only be accessed through the top or top-front thereof. This requires space over the top of the cabinet to be maintained free and clear of other furniture, posting boards, shelving, and the like and represents a further loss of otherwise usable space.
In addition, there is the problem with “fishing” extraction of deposits from the lower safe body. Presently, virtually all prior art deposit cabinets are equipped with “anti-fish” baffles that comprise special plates, walls, dividers, etc., placed at various locations inside the deposit cabinet and in the passageway leading from the upper deposit cabinet down into the safe. While these baffles are somewhat protective of the contents of the deposits already made in the cabinet, criminal ingenuity is constantly at work to overcome these safety measures and, at times, is successful. It is a never-ending chore to develop new anti-fish baffles to stay one step ahead of the thieves.